Sundays With Ingrid

Grampy popped another blackened marshmallow into his mouth. “Thing with bullies,” he said, “you got to punch ’em right in the nose.”

“Won’t just filing the appeal be enough?” Ingrid said.

The flames flickered in Grampy’s eyes. “I learned about bullies when I was—how old are you again?”

“Thirteen.”

“When I was even younger than you. Just a little guy back then, didn’t get my strength till I was eighteen, went to Wyoming and worked on a ranch.”

“You worked on a ranch?”

“But this was before, right here. Those days there were still lots of farms around, including a small one the Prescotts had right across 392.”

“There were still Prescotts then?”

“Yup.”

“How long was this before the accident at the falls?”

“You know about that?” said Grampy. “Four or five years, maybe. But that’s not the point. The Prescotts didn’t live on the farm—they had tenant farmers, the Krakens, a rotten family from way back, and the Krakens had a boy a few years older than me. Liked to play cowboys and Indians. I was the Indian.” He stared at the fire for a long time. “Always ended up in their barn, somehow,” said Grampy, “me with my hands tied, noose around my neck.”

“A noose?”

“He was good with ropes. Noose around my neck, strung over the rafters, standing on a box. He’d threaten to kick the box out from under me ’less I spilled the beans.”

“About what?”

“Where the gold was hidden, whatever it was, the game we were playing. Didn’t matter what I said, he wouldn’t believe it. After an hour or so, he’d get bored and untie me.”

“Oh my God, Grampy. Did you tell your parents?”

Grampy shook his head. “No one can protect you,” he said. “Got to protect yourself. So one time, when he untied me, it finally dawned—here I am up on the box at eye level. And I popped him a good one on the nose.”

“And he ran away?”

“Ever had your nose broken?”

“God, no,” said Ingrid.

“Stings,” said Grampy. “Plus there was lots of blood. Naturally he put his hand right up to his face, feeling around. That’s when I kicked him in the . . . in the place where sometimes you got to kick a guy. Ol’ Carl never came near me after that.”

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75 Responses to “Sundays With Ingrid”

Hi Mollypop,
I actually don’t mind the mousecapades that much since I am not afraid of mice, but it gets very tiring to be awakend at 4 in the morning night after night. I wonder how things are going with Dawson this morning.

Morning all. Thanks Riö, beautifully expressed my feelings. She’s happy this morning. She is in the coveted spot. The fireplace in the family room. Inside the fireplace in the family room. Will post picture later.

Rio. That was such a wondrous prayer last night; my mom is still a bit weepy-eyed over it. Looks like it may have helped Bess too; hope she is very comfortable in her coveted spot.

As to your theory, while I am not sure I buy it totally, I have to agree with Staff you at least have a theory whereas the rest of us are floundering (kind of like Flounder from Animal House). It’s easy to poke holes at someone else’s theory; it’s much more difficult to develop one of your own. In any event, the follow to the ellipsis has been delayed at least one more day, compliments of Ingrid and Grampy.

Have on some holiday music on and shopping for OTAS’s present. He has asked for a pocket watch for his wedding (2012), and I figure I’ll get it now. Got permission and colors from Fiancee and been having fun.

Found the site in England, they do Celtic pewter pocket watches. Cool.

Bess is doing better. Lots of hugs and kisses from us.

I’m printing out Riö’s prayer. Then I don’t have to read it to her. It is wonderful and I get all teary eyed.

Paper!… You guys should see my friend….heh!… She has paper glued to everything in the dining room including herself…snort!… She looked in the mirror and she even had some stuck in her hair…wheeze! … Now she’s all mad and frustrated because she doesn’t have the right size of paper strips to frame some windows – she’s contemplating cutting 1/16 inch wide strips herself…zow!….This is gonna be fun to watch!…heh!heh!

Just checking in..mom was sick yesterday and didn’t get the computer turned on for me. She says it is just a weird virus from another planet. She is better today, but I think she is going to fall back in bed soon.
I’m being a good boy and helping her out and not complaining about not getting to go to the dog park.

Saw all that snow, Molly. Wow! Your ski area could have really used it.

Melanie, tell Bess we love her and are praying for her. Keep praying, Rio.

A lot of bullying is verbal these days. We try and be on top of it at school and shut it down when we hear it but its hard.

Made a mistake…I usually sleep with my window open but close it when it is below -20 or so because the window ices and freezes open. This is not a good thing when it is -40 and -50 as you definitely don’t want the window open. Well, I forgot to close the window and it iced open at -30. I’ve checked next week’s forecast and it is to be -30 all next week AND the weatherman says that December is supposed to be the coldest in the last decade. Phooey. I guess I better get out a blow dryer and hammer. I once had a door that kept freezing shut during the night and by the time spring hit, that door had a lot of dents in it!

Hear you on that bullying C.Harris, but I seem to have missed what went with it.

YSAS was bullied through his high school years. It was not easy but he handled it. But as a Junior it was terrible, so I told the Principal that if it didn’t stop the school system would be paying for McKey to go to a school specifically for Dyslexic students.
That stopped it.

Reminder: This is the “theory” I came up with back on June 29. It was after objections were made to a new character being added to the story. We had learned of Albie’s murder on June 17.

Actually we do have another character but we haven’t met him personally yet. In the post of May 24, Foster tells Bernie that Albie got it into his head that Astrid was interested in some other “dude” but that he was wrong because Astrid liked Albie “a little.” Bernie asks Foster if he, Foster, is the other dude but F just laughs.
This may fit with the way Astrid “handles” men. She may have played on Ray’s sensibilities to the point that he hates his father. I think she must be the one who told Ray about Col. Bob.
Perhaps she played on the sensibilities of the other “dude” and he became obsessed with protecting her, to the point that he kills Albie. Perhaps he’s jealous of Ray because he doesn’t want any man to be close to her. Perhaps Astrid finally realizes the dude’s obsessiveness and she becomes afraid of him and runs away to Pine City. Perhaps Foster helped her get away….somehow he knew where she was going. The other dude set up Ray in order to hurt Astrid……..

To add to the back story: Another reason the dude sets up Ray is so that Astrid will come out of “hiding.”
I think Col. Bob only wants to find Astrid because Ray has made him feel, possibly, fraternal responsibility. Col. Bob is humane and probably wants Ray, since he is his son, to like him. He’s looking for solutions for Ray.

Hi Liz. Good point. Perhaps, if the other dude was Ratko, Astrid didn’t “get involved” the way he wanted to and that was why he turned against her and she ran away. A question would then be, who killed Ratko?

C.Harris: Burrrrr is all I can say. We had a wind chill of 17 here this morning and I thought that was cold.

If Bess walked today she may be better. Thanks for the picture Melanie.

Or if Foster is really the other dude, but Ratko was around and bothering Astrid, maybe Foster killed Ratko to get him out of the picture? Or Astrid killed Ratko and Foster found out about it and … I’ve run out of steam.

Barb & Maggie…it is just the bedroom I keep cold plus I like fresh air. I have 2 parakeets so I have to keep the living room warm. I sleep with a sheet and comforter and am often hot. What can I say, the arctic is great for peri-menopausal women. Once the gym teacher saw me leave the building coatless at -50 to retrieve something from the car. He called me over and gave me his warmup jacket. I protested that I’d only be a minute but he said that I had to set an example for the students who way too often are dropped off at school wearing shorts and sandals. When I take students on field trips, I always warn them in advance that they have to take arctic gear in case the bus breaks down–they don’t have to wear it but it has to be on the bus. The radio constantly reminds people that they should be prepared to walk a mile in the cold if they have to.

Stover!… All my friend made today was a big fat mess…heh!… She doesn’t feel that well either today, and thought this craftiness would help take her mind off her stomach ache….grunt!… Now she is making different kinds of flowers. She decided on a smaller project for Grandma, so now she is making different kinds of flowers. ….sniff!…I think this is one she can actually finish at some point, hopefully before Christmas day!…snort!

Rio: She’s finished the other projects right? The mess sounds funny but then I can sometimes have a strange sense of humor. I don’t feel that great today either. I hope your friend starts feeling better.

Projects!… She has only finished two projects so far…snort!… The problem has been that she starts a project and then realizes she doesn’t have the correct supplies for it…grunt!… So she goes and buys more stuff only to find that she still doesn’t have all the supplies…cough!… Today, she needed some specific colors of paper, but she, of course did not have the right ones….sniff!…Because she didn’t feel well, there was no trip to the crafts store. Amazingly enough her mother had a bunch of just the right kind and color she needed….wheeze!….She just finished making 14 flowers with this newly acquired paper…grumble!…Where’s my supper? Put the damned quilling tool away and feed me NOW!….dammit! …This craftiness is fast becoming a nuisance to my schedule….growl!

Just reading the first sentence of the post makes me want to get out the marshmallows and barbecue skewers and head for the stove. Blackened marshmallows are the best. Anyone else?

Rio: I have lots of embroidery crafts and have forbidden myself to buy anymore (ditto on candles). I never get in the mood for Christmas until about now and it’s too late to finish anything to mail as a gift. I always swear that I will work on the Christmas projects all year and be ready next year but so far my best intentions are for naught. Maybe next year.

Gifts!… She only has four gifts to make, and one is already done….grunt!…So I don’t know why she is stressing out over this whole thing…snort!…For her Brother and his wife (and her mother) she is going to print out photos of her dad with the family and put them in a collage frame…sneeze!…How hard can that be?….sniff!…Next year will be different she thinks, because she will know how to do things quicker and easier, plus she will have paper and supplies up the butt…grunt!…Last night in a panic she ordered a ton of pre-cut paper stripes of all colors from the Quilling Superstore online…cough!….All this crap is eating into my treat allowance money…grump!…It’s the Elephant in the room. Paper everywhere and very messy…sniff!… She needs to get organized or else…grump!

C.Harris!…Everytime you post about your temperatures someone wants to turn up the thermastat…yeep!…I’m all for that because I am always cold in the winter….sniff!… You are just plain crazy for living in a place that gets below zero to that degree…grunt!…Seems very dangerous to me!

Melanie!…Please say “Hi” to Dan for me!…snort!…I hope he is doing well these days…grunt!

Rio,
Does someone who quills use a rotary cutter to make the paper strips? quilters have rotary cutters and see through rulers, and can cut lovely straight lines on them.
I have an old rotary cutter that I use just for paper. It dulls the blade so you don’t want to use the paper blade on fabric.

Alice and AbbietheKitty were very happy to see us. Abbie immediately led me to the wool rug for a tummy rub and Dawson told her. “Flop over right now and make her get to work.” (Dawson has gone into her room and closed the door tight. I think she is worried about the mousie)

Wookie!…Since toys and treats are a crucial element of the next Mission, this is acceptable…grunt!… No Facebook time though, or it will be confiscated…snort!… We watched an interview with the Creator of Facebook tonight on 60 minutes, or something like that… sniff!….He is 26 years old and already worth 6.9 Billion $$$$’s… sneeze!… What the Hell?… wheeze!…He employs a Huge group of software engineers and is probably going to take over the internet as we know it….cough!…Except for Chet’s Blog….heh!…That will never change over to Facebookiness… snort!

Rio,
Your green thingy looks perfect for what you do. The ruler and the rotary cutter depend on YOU to make it go straight. Sometimes the ruler moves all by itself!
Heh. And sometimes the rotary cutter just decides to go ‘walkabout’.
That can be annoying when you have a seam allowance, but worse when you don’t.
I have a friend who does stamping and she uses a green thingy.

Wookie!…How big is that IPAD you bought with Admin’s monthly household allowance…heh! snort!…He will never know. I have the accounting system completely covered…..sniff!…As long as there are no really Huge expenditures that Spencer might question…chorkel!….How much was it Wookie?….grunt!

Flowers!…Staff, I’m surprised you could see those little bitty things…heh!…That whole pile of stuff is just practice pieces. She is keeping it for now in case she can use it on something else later….grunt!…What she really needs is like a fishing tackle box to keep all these little objects separate from each other…sniff!…But do I know anything about it? Absolutely not in her opinion…sneeze!

Rio, you probably can’t see it, but your friend has a KAT figurine on the bookstand behind the table. And I think staff was talking about the big flower arrangement on the table, another thing you can’t see from the floor.
The picture is just because it makes mom smile.(hi there BB &G’s mom)

Min Pin!…. That is a Great Photo!…snort!… I am so very jealous of you for being there and having the Charming Mr. Abrahams great big paws around you…heh!…His hands are Huge…good grief!…How in the world does he play tennis with those big paws. Or type for that matter? How in the world does he type?…snort! … Unbelievable…Thanks for putting that photo up again!…heh!

Min Pin!…That guy, that Pug there, he looks so worried about something…heh!…What was going on when you took that photo? ….snort!…He actually lives at the Bookstore?…sniff!…How cool is that? And regarding the Kat figurine, that is all that is allowed in this house, one Kat figurine…heh!…You are right, I thought Staff was talking about that little pile of objects, some flowers, but of course it was something else that I can’t see…grunt!

MagPie!… I don’t know what you are talking about because I can’t see it…snort!…But she hasn’t made anything like flowers until just lately, so my guess would be NO…heh!…All the stuff we have now in this house is stuff she bought when she was making billions of $$$’s working in the software industry…grunt!…Now she survive’s on Ramon and Cottage Cheese and food from her mother. I still get all my good stuff though, yes I DO!…snorkel!…Although, she does have her sense of humor back and is visibly happier…sniff!…That’s got to be worth something?…huh?

B, the picture of us you admired was taken when we curled up in Mom’s fancy towel display rack. It is some kind of three level thingy that she would arrange towels in “just so” and we felt that the top level was perfect for naps. Did we care that the towels got messed up? No, not a bit.

When Mom posted our pictures on Friends of Chet, she picked the wrong one of Gus. It looks like he is winking. Duh.

Thanks for posting that picture again, MacyMP. That was a fun time. We bet he will be back next September with Book4. Murder by the Book will often bring authors back with each new book. Lee Child has been there every year since the first Reacher book.

SiberH, has your Dad gotten to come home yet? Is he feeling better? If your Mom is under the weather, she won’t get to go visit him.

Melanie, extra special prayers and thoughts for Bess. There has been enough illness and problems with the people and pets on this blog so we need to finish the year on a good note. So Bess, get better quick. Maybe she just needs an adjustment on her meds.

Barb, don’t try to do too much too soon. Baby steps until you feel up to snuff.

KirbyT, hope your grandpa is doing better after his surgery.

Geez, Rio, you had better keep the prayers coming until everyone is back in tiptop shape.

Reacher!…So that Pug is the guy who writes all those novels that we here have never read!…heh!…Wow! That is pretty impressive for a Pug. I am usually more content to be lazy and lie around in my warm soft bed with my baseball toys all in their place…snort!…Not diligently writing book after book about some loner who wonders around aimlessly finding himself in the middle of mystery after mystery…heh!…If I remember the Reacher character correctly that is. …sniff!

Gus and BooBear: remember the air is very dry. I have been colder at +40 visiting Seattle. A wet cold with wind is the worst. When its been -30 for a few days, -20 feels a lot better and 0 feels like spring! I have a closet full of gear for every 10 degrees difference; however, at -50 or -60 you are just going to be cold period.

Rio: I love the dining room table photo. I’m impressed. I’d have to c-l-e-a-r my table plus clean the entire room before I take a photo–not going to happen before Christmas.

Well….She has finally been able to eat something and feels a little better, so now we are off to bed big time!…heh!…I love bedtime it’s my favorite time in the whole wide world…snuffle!…She said, because it is cold I can sleep under the covers of the Big Bed tonight…yeep!…I knew it, I just knew it!…heh!…Good night all!. We both will be saying prayers for all of you tonight!…snorkel!…Even Alice in a small way…sniff!

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